As a leading foodservice agency, the food-to-go market, which is predicted to grow to £23.5bn by 2022* has been top of mind at Jellybean Creative for some time (as you can see from our previous blogs: here, here, and here), so it was with great interest I sat down to hear about this unabating trend from a global perspective when I visited Lunch!

IGD, the global food and grocery experts, are undertaking a major insight programme around food-to-go and Gavin Rothwell their Senior Insights Manager has the enviable job of travelling the world searching for what makes a great food-to-go proposition. Here are some of his findings:

Starbucks Reserve Roastery & Tasting Room , situated in its homeland Seattle, it’s just one mile away from the first ever Starbucks site. Billed as a ‘coffee experience’, this really is a brand showcase and is set up to educate, inform and inspire. There are wider rollout plans already underway for launches in other big cities worldwide.

Sweetgreen is a US-based salad bar/healthy meal solutions chain with a huge focus on provenance and seasonality, which they use as a selling point e.g. Get your asparagus soup today, as it will only be available for the next week and then it’s gone until next year!

Panera Bread is a two-thousand strong American bakery serving up healthy, balanced and nutritious menus, using good ingredients and a host of flexible meals for almost every occasion. A simple idea they introduced was including an apple as the default in a meal deal instead of something sweet.

Toss & Turn is a chain of salad and soup bars in Singapore and Hong Kong whose motto is ‘Eat Well, Live Well’. Amongst other menu items, which they describe as ‘leafy goodness’, they’ve been offering their customers the ‘Smoothie Bowl’ for some time and have an all-day dining menu including gourmet thins, wholesome soups and succulent sandwiches.

Espresso House is the largest coffeehouse chain in the Nordics with a focus on in-store environment and a strong food range with a multitude of choices. Sweden has the 2nd largest organic market in the world, so it caters for this market by making sure that 10% of their range is organic.

Centra is Ireland’s leading convenience retail group, who have developed their own coffee shop brand – Frank and Honest, Gourmet Coffee Company . They’re leading the way in food-to-go because they offer various different solutions from self-serve machines, to coffee shops with baristas serving up premium salads and cakes. They have built up such a good reputation that they’re being approached to set-up across the country.

Whole Foods Market are continually innovating, with every individual store offering something different. The Boston store is working with individual street traders to offer something local to its clientele.

PCC Community Markets in Seattle boast open kitchens showing just how proud they are of what they do. Their chefs create original recipes from scratch using fresh, seasonal ingredients, so customers can pick up a hot slice, whole pie or grab a take-and-bake pizza for later.

Food Central in Miyana, Mexico is one of the best case studies because it meets every single food-to-go option available in the market. Essentially it’s a huge food court offering the widest variety of food options to satisfy every taste bud!

All these examples from across the world show that there’s not just one way to achieve success and that understanding the customer is key. Expect more fusions between foodservice and retail food-to-go operations as the food spaces develop. Shopper trends are pointing to a further increase in the role of food-to-go ahead, so we can look forward to enjoying more exciting options on the go!